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Ceres Reports

A comprehensive listing of Ceres reports and publications from 2002 - present, including resources for companies, investors, industry leaders and policymakers about integrating sustainability into the bottom line.

A comprehensive listing of Ceres reports and publications from 2002 - present, including resources for companies, investors, industry leaders and policymakers about integrating sustainability into the bottom line.

When we examine the full costs of public programs that pay for disaster relief and recovery from extreme weather events—ad hoc disaster assistance appropriations, flood insurance, crop insurance, wildfire protection, and state run “residual market” insurance programs—we can begin to understand the price to U.S. taxpayers of inaction on climate change.

Our latest annual report highlights our accomplishments over the last year in mobilizing our powerful networks of investors and companies to integrate environmental and social concerns into their decision-making and operations. It discusses our efforts to move key economic players like the insurance industry and to transform capital market systems in order to address the most pressing sustainability challenges of our time—water scarcity, the depletion of natural resources, and the growing impacts of climate change.

Climate change presents a profound but widely ignored risk to investment portfolios.Since climate risk has serious long-term implications (though increasingly, lack of attention to climate risk results in negative short-term impacts as well), family offices have a particular interest in wisely managing this critical investment risk. By their nature, family offices are designed to take a very long-term view, responsibly stewarding family resources for generations in perpetuity.
With this primer, Ceres provides nine action steps that family offices can take toward integrating climate risk considerations into their investment portfolios. Family offices can use this primer as a launching point for asking questions of their financial advisors and for beginning to implement customized strategies for climate risk mitigation.

Water utilities are on the brink of extraordinary investments to replace aging infrastructure—the Environmental Protection Agency estimates that by 2030, capital expenditures of more than $300 billion will be needed to safeguard drinking water. Yet this investment comes at a time when Americans’ water use habits are changing—resulting in considerable uncertainty for water systems planning capital programs to replace or expand their assets.

The results of this third global survey of climate-related investment practices, summarized in this report, are consistent with last year’s results: while members of the investor networks surveyed continue to show a strong commitment to addressing climate change in their investment activities, translating that commitment into investment decisions that reduce climate risks to portfolios and leverage climate-related investment opportunities remains a challenge. Leading investors continue to advance their climate-related investment practices, and are prepared to do significantly more with the appropriate policy signals.

The tremendous growth of unconventional oil production in North Dakota has also led to a rapid rise in the production of associated natural gas. However, state authorities report that a large percentage of this gas does not ultimately go to market. Nearly 30 percent of North Dakota gas is currently being burned off, or flared, each month as a byproduct of oil production.

Unprecedented risks to the global economy make this a challenging time for the 21st century investor—institutional asset owners and their investment managers—most of which have multi-generational obligations to beneficiaries. Climate change, resource scarcity, population growth, energy demand, ensuring the human rights of workers across global supply chains, and access to fresh water are some of the major issues challenging our ability to build a sustainable economy, one that meets the needs of people today without compromising the needs of future generations.

California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard requires a 10 percent reduction in the carbon intensity of transportation fuels by 2020, as measured on a lifecycle basis. The goals of the program are to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector, diversify the transportation fuels sector, and to spur investment and innovation in lower carbon fuels. This report represents the first phase of a two-phase, year-long project assessing the economic and environmental impacts of compliance with California’s LCFS out to 2020.

This report serves as a resource guide to help global investors respond to environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues that are increasingly the subject of shareholder resolutions filed with U.S. publicly held corporations. This first-of-its-kind report lays out four concise sets of principles on governance, social issues, general sustainability and environmental performance to guide investors’ voting on specific resolutions addressing these topics.

Research shows climate change could impose a multi-trillion dollar burden on the global economy and contribute ten percent of overall risk within institutional investment portfolios. Institutional investors, who manage tens of trillions of dollars globally, are actively looking for ways to mitigate these climate-related risks. Energy efficiency offers one such opportunity for institutional investors to manage the risks of climate change while earning a competitive rate of return on their investment.

This report analyzes the latest emissions from the 100 largest power producers in the U.S. The report shows that the electric industry cut emissions of NOx, SO2 and CO2 in 2011 even as overall electricity generation increased, largely due to increased use of natural gas and growing reliance on renewable energy.

This Ceres research paper analyzes water use in hydraulic fracturing operations across the United States and the extent to which this activity is taking place in water stressed regions. It provides an overview of efforts underway, such as the use of recycled water and nonfreshwater resources, to mitigate these impacts and suggests key questions that industry, water managers and investors should be asking.

In its Report on Municipal Securities Market, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission recommends the development of best practices in disclosure to improve the fairness and efficiency of the municipal market.
Given the heightened attention to credit analysis across the municipal market, and the shifting operating environment facing issuers within the water and sewer sector, Ceres is issuing this disclosure framework to ensure that all material information is provided to investors in the primary and secondary markets.

This report summarizes responses from insurance companies to a survey on climate risk developed by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC). In 2012 insurance regulators in California, New York and Washington required insurers that write in excess of $300 million in direct written premiums, and are licensed to operate in any of the three states, to disclose their climate-related risks using this survey. The aim of the survey and Ceres’ analysis of the responses is to provide regulators with substantive information about the risks to insurers posed by climate change, as well as steps insurers are taking in response to their understanding of climate change risks.

As numerous western states are considering massive new water supply projects, a new Ceres report is suggesting caution. Citing shrinking federal funds, uncertain water demand and declining revenues to pay for the projects, the report recommends that utilities move carefully before embarking on major pipelines, reservoirs and other new infrastructure that will create financial risks for investors and utility customers alike.

This report shows that a majority of Fortune 100 companies have set a renewable energy commitment, a greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction commitment or both. The trend is even stronger internationally, as more than two-thirds of Fortune’s Global 100 have set the same commitments.

In this report you will find highlights of our work over the past year, including groundbreaking reports that are helping reshape the nation’s electric-power sector; new tools to help industry use water more efficiently; successful efforts to require insurance companies to publicly disclose climate-related financial risks; progress on new stock exchange listing requirements for sustainability disclosure; and a major evaluation of the sustainability performance of 600 large U.S. companies.

Over the next three years, Ceres will work with its core constituencies to accelerate the adoption of sustainable business practices, integrate sustainability risks and opportunities into corporate and investor strategies, and establish new rules of the road. Our strategic plan lays out our goals for the next three years and how we expect to achieve them.